Subjective and Objective

By: Chris Dodge

Posted: August 8, 2013

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking both at the International Manufacturers Forum in London as well as the Annual Chemist Society of Turkey’s conference in Antalya. The subject of both speeches was analyzing the subjective and objective properties of products in beauty brands.

In the course of selling your product, it is important to know the how and why of your product. It is not enough to know you have a fine product at a good price—you need to know why your product is good, and, more importantly, the characteristics of how and why.

Subjective Vs. Objective

When you evaluate your product, you need to know that it has both a subjective and an objective property. The objective property is the function of the product. For a shampoo, the objective property is the ability to clean the hair. For a perfume, it is to mask unwanted body odor. The objective is that function that is not up to any interpretation. It is the function of the product at its most basic level.

The subjective property of a product is the perception of that product upon the senses of the consumer. It is the smell of the fragrance. It is the way the lather feels when you are applying the shampoo to your hair and the way your hair feels after it has been cleaned.

Subjective properties can have some function that is not essential to the objective property, as well. These can include secondary functions such as non-tangling properties in a shampoo. Don’t confuse these secondary functions as objectives, as they are not. They are simply the cherry on top of the cake.